FBI FIRES STRZOK: The FBI has fired Peter Strzok, the counterintelligence agent who came under scrutiny for sending disparaging text messages about President Trump and other political figures during the 2016 election.

Strzok's lawyer, Aitan Goelman, confirmed the firing, which took place on Friday. He blasted the decision in a statement Monday, saying the "Deputy Director of the FBI overruled the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) and departed from established precedent by firing 21-year FBI veteran Peter Strzok."

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"The decision to fire Special Agent Strzok is not only a departure from typical Bureau practice, but also contradicts Director [Christopher] Wray's testimony to Congress and his assurances that the FBI intended to follow its regular process in this and all personnel matters," Goelman continued in the statement.

Strzok, a 21-year veteran of the bureau, has faced a barrage of attacks from Trump and Republicans after an internal investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ) revealed he had sent messages critical of the then-Republican candidate during the 2016 presidential race to then-FBI lawyer Lisa Page. The two were having an extramarital affair at the time.

"Agent Peter Strzok was just fired from the FBI - finally. The list of bad players in the FBI & DOJ gets longer & longer. Based on the fact that Strzok was in charge of the Witch Hunt, will it be dropped? It is a total Hoax. No Collusion, No Obstruction - I just fight back!"

TRUMP SIGNS DEFENSE POLICY BILL: The final version of an annual defense policy bill sets new authorities for the Department of Defense to deter and respond to attacks in cyberspace, including establishing the first U.S. policy on cyber warfare.

Following House and Senate negotiations, a conference report on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) released Monday says the United States should be able to use every option on the table, including offensive cyber capabilities.

EVERY STEP YOU TAKE, EVERY MOVE YOU MAKE, GOOGLE WILL BE WATCHING YOU: A new Associated Press report out Monday shows that Google still tracks your location even if you, well, turn off location tracking.

The story shows that the internet giant stores location data about users even after they toggle off the "Location History" setting for their account. This is true both for Android and iPhone users who use Google's services.

"There are a number of different ways that Google may use location to improve people's experience, including: Location History, Web and App Activity, and through device-level Location Services," a Google spokesperson told the AP. "We provide clear descriptions of these tools, and robust controls so people can turn them on or off, and delete their histories at any time."

Still, some critics, like former FCC chief technologist Jonathan Mayer, think that Google is being dishonest about its practices.

"If you're going to allow users to turn off something called 'Location History,' then all the places where you maintain location history should be turned off," Mayer said. "That seems like a pretty straightforward position to have."

WHO'S IN THE HOUSE? THE 'SECURE ELECTIONS ACT': Four lawmakers on the powerful House Intelligence Committee, including two Republicans, are introducing legislation to help states secure the nation's digital election infrastructure against cyberattacks following Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The bill, like its companion in the Senate, is also designed to improve information sharing between state and federal officials on cyber threats to elections.

Why this is significant: Lankford and Klobuchar led a bipartisan cadre of senators introducing the original version of the Secure Elections Act back in December. However, the development Friday is the first clear sign of the measure gaining traction in the House. Read more.

"This is a White House where everybody lies ... you have to have your back," Manigault Newman said on NBC's "Meet the Press" on why she recorded her conversation with Kelly.

On Monday, in an even more shocking move, Manigault Newman released a secret recording of a call with President Trump.

The bottom-line: The Situation Room is supposed to be technology free-zone, though it is a trust-based honor system. So you better bet this will call into question its security protocols. Read more here and here.

SINCLAIR'S PROBLEMS MAY JUST BE BEGINNING: Sinclair Broadcast Group's failed efforts to merge with Tribune Media and build a conservative media powerhouse may be just the start of the broadcasting giant's problems.

Tribune called the deal off on Thursday and filed a lawsuit against Sinclair for $1 billion. The suit alleges that its would-be business partner broke the terms of their merger agreement and jeopardized the deal by arrogantly dismissing the concerns of officials at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Department of Justice.

The merger's collapse was a stunning reversal of fortune for conservative broadcaster Sinclair. The conventional wisdom a few months ago was that Sinclair's proposal would be approved, giving the company the ability to reach nearly three quarters of the country's television audience. Now, Sinclair is facing questions about whether it's even fit to hold a broadcasting license.

Last month, the FCC accused Sinclair of misleading the agency about proposals related to the deal and voted to send the merger to an administrative law judge, a move that ultimately caused Tribune to back away.

"That is the absolute worst thing you can do as far as the FCC is concerned," said Gigi Sohn, a former Democratic adviser at the agency.

DRAMA @ DEFCON: Several women at DEFCON, the annual hacking conference, were rattled after hotel security at Caesar's Palace allegedly burst into their rooms in order to carry out a security sweep, a practice that is being instituted following the Las Vegas shooting.

As they sought to boost security at the hotel, they clamped down on their customers' privacy.

According to some accounts, the security officials flashed ID cards with "worn off" pictures or pointed to the "security" patch sewn on their shirts.

Some women said this was inadequate, stating that they should be able to authenticate that the guards are who they say they are. In addition to calling for the security guards producing a government-issued ID, they said front desk should've produced the security guards' full names over the phone so that the women could ask the guards through the door to announce their names and make sure they size up.

Otherwise, this creates a situation where a woman's security is at risk, said Katie Mousourris.

"If Caesars Palace won't create a simple process for authenticating hotel personnel when guests request it, then women will be assaulted as a direct result of their lack of accepting my feedback & that of other security professionals here. They should be held 100% at legal fault," she tweeted.

The company -- which reportedly has ties to Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin, a Russian businessman better known as "Putin's chef" because of his ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin -- is accused of funding a Russian troll farm that used social media to sow discord among the American public in a broader plot to interfere in the election.

A U.S.-based attorney filed a motion in June asking the court to dismiss the charges, arguing that Rosenstein violated the Appointments Clause of the U.S. Constitution when he tapped Mueller to spearhead the Russia investigation in May 2017. Friedrich struck down his argument on Monday. Read more.

TECH + WHITE HOUSE TACKLE HEALTH DATA: Major technology companies on Monday announced their commitment to making it easier to share data across the healthcare sector, in a move backed by the White House.

On Monday, during the Blue Button 2.0 Developer Conference, a group of technology companies said that they're pushing to make data more accessible for the healthcare industry and providers, with the intention of reducing costs by improving ease of access.

The companies such as Amazon, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Salesforce and Oracle as well as a tech lobbying group they're members of, the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), all pledged their support to improving healthcare data interoperability.

Matt Lira, a White House senior advisor who works in the Office of American Innovation, praised the move.

"Today's announcements represent a watershed moment toward fostering more innovation in America's healthcare systems," he said in a statement to The Hill, expressing optimism with the tech sectors growing healthcare work.

TWITTER SAYS SOME ALEX JONES POSTS VIOLATED RULES: A Twitter spokesperson says several posts by InfoWars host Alex Jones and flagged by CNN violated the site's content policy, but that just two of them are recent enough for the company to take action against Jones' accounts.

The spokesperson told CNN Friday that seven posts out of more than a dozen reported by the network in an article on Thursday violated the site's content policy, including some tweets containing degrading messages about religious groups or gender identities, and others spreading conspiracy theories about February's mass shooting in Parkland, Florida.

The remarks follow less than a day after a Twitter executive told CNN that such messages violating the company's policies had not occurred, arguing that "we would have taken action" to delete them.

COURT STAYS FCC MOVE TO CUT TRIBAL BENEFITS: A federal court has blocked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from making changes to a broadband subsidy program that would have effectively eliminated benefits for many Native Americans living on tribal lands.

A three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay of the FCC's order, saying that it would likely cause significant loss of telecommunications service to tribal areas.

"While there may be some public benefit to eliminating unnecessary spending, the Tribal Lifeline program has been in existence for nearly two decades and the Federal Communications Commission has not demonstrated that allowing it to continue in its current form while these consolidated cases remain pending will result in significant harm to the government or the public at large," the court wrote in its order.

FAX HAX: Often overlooked office fax machines pose a huge vulnerability to the cybersecurity of businesses and other organizations, according to a new study.

Many such machines run on decades-old protocols that are easy for hackers to penetrate, says Israel-based soft­ware com­pany Check Point's study.

The study doesn't focus on any hacks of actual fax machines, but explains how such an attack could occur and how it would work.

The process is fairly straightforward for hackers.

Most fax lines are connected to an organization's larger IT network, so after a cyber intruder makes their way into an insecure fax machine, everything else, regardless of what other cyber protections are in place, can become easy targets.